Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics

The Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics was established in 1959 initially as “Office for Research and Calculations”, to promote scientific research in Astronomy and Applied Mathematics and to perform calculations related to these topics. In 1966, it has been renamed “Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics”.

The first supervisor of the “Office for Research and Calculations”, and later of the “Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics”, was Academician Prof. I. Xanthakis, until his death on 10 July 1994. During the years 1994-1997 the Research Center was supervised by Academician Prof. N. Artemiadis. Since 1997 the supervisor is Academician Prof. G.  Contopoulos.

As directors have served in the past L. Mavridis (1960-1966), K. Makris (1971-1979), K. Poulakos (1981-2001), N. Voglis (2001-2007), V. Tritakis (2007), E. Dara (2008).

Our current working areas are:

  • Dynamical Astronomy, Nonlinear phenomena and applications of Chaos Theory in Astronomy

  • Galactic Dynamics and Galactic Morphology

  • Solar Physics and Relations between Solar and Terrestrial Phenomena

  • Magnetohydrodynamics

  • Cosmology and Gravitation

  • Mathematical Applications in Astronomy and Astrophysics

We are working towards comparing theoretical results with observational data from ground based as well as from space observatories (VLT, Solar Orbiter etc.). The main scientific goals include the study of the role of Chaos in supporting structures in N-body simulations, the Dynamics of the Milky Way and other galaxies, the study of the magnetic connectivity in the active-regions of the solar atmosphere, the investigation of particle acceleration in the pulsar magnetosphere and the time profiles of the resulting high energy radiation, the formation and evolution of Structures in Cosmology as well as the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

Many young graduate students and researchers are joining our Institute and successfully complete their PhD and Masters Theses. The courses "Nolinear Dynamics" for Masters' students at the University of Athens is taught by members of our Institute.

RCAAM organizes since 1997 on a weekly basis a seminar with speakers leading scientists from Greece and abroad. The talks are attended by many researchers, university professors and young scientists. RCAAM has organized in 2007 an international conference on "Chaos in Astronomy" as a continuation of another conference organized in 2002. The success of this series of conferences is planned to be continued during the next years. Another conference organized with remarkable success by our institute was the conference "Classical and Quantum Gravity", Crete 2009. RCAAM has also organized with remarkable success a series of talks for the broad public in the Academy of Athens during 2009 in the frame of the International Year of Astronomy. Many other talks for the broad public are given every year.